Assignment:
Response a 2 to 3 page paper in APA format. Needs to be no more than 3 pages plus a cover and a reference page.
GE Healthcare (B): A CSR Dilemma
Review the case study titled "GE Healthcare (B): A CSR Dilemma" .
1. Determine two (2) specific ethical issues that General Electric (GE) Healthcare faced when implementing its strategy to introduce low cost diagnostic equipment to developing countries. Recommend two (2) actions that GE can take to resolve these ethical issues.
2. Analyze the concepts of professional and applied ethics and determine whether GE Healthcare breeched these concepts in the development of its low cost alternatives for diagnostic medical equipment. Provide one (1) specific example to support your rationale.
3. Determine whether GE Healthcare has any responsibility in resolving the issue of a preference for male children in cultures where its diagnostic ultrasound products are sold. Recommend one (1) strategy that would enable GE Healthcare to balance its responsibility of continued growth and development with any ethical or moral concerns investors and human rights groups might have regarding the use of its equipment in controlling the birth rates of male children in some cultures.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
· Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
GE Healthcare (B):
A CSR Dilemma
The Venue 40 Ultrasound
In the 1990s, GE had attempted to develop an inexpensive ultrasound machine focused on offering the basic ultrasound functionality using PC-based software. These efforts were subsequently shelved because the machine's performance was not considered adequate for GE's mainstream markets. However, a decade later, the idea was revived by GE's China R&D team as worth exploring for the local market, given the trade-offs that low-income consumers there were willing to make and the technologically more advanced laptop-based platforms that could now be potentially used.
The R&D team in China came up with a compact ultrasound - the Venue 40 - that relied on touch-screen technology and eliminated the buttons, knobs and keyboards of conventional machines. Further, the device's smooth surface facilitated the cleanliness required in sterile environments, and its intuitive interface appealed to physicians new to ultrasound.
While GE's conventional machines could cost over $100,000, the cheapest Venue 40 sold for under $20,000. Soon after the product's China launch in 2009, GE started selling different variants in other emerging markets and in untapped segments back in developed markets.1
A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Dilemma
GE would, however, need to carefully manage the marketing, sales and distribution of the new device in markets where ultrasound technology was seen to have exacerbated the problem of the disproportionate number of abortions of female foetuses, leading to major concerns about gender imbalance. For example, one news report estimated gender selection to be a $100 million business in India, and the cause of 10 million "missing girls" over two decades.2 Another article estimated the missing girl count for China to exceed 40 million over a decade, again blaming easy availability of ultrasounds for much of that.3 As a market leader in ultrasounds, GE was caught up in the controversy.
While both India and China had made gender determination illegal, enforcement remained a challenge. Critics argued that GE's aggressive marketing encouraged the practice. It was also accused of insufficiently monitoring whether its machines sold through third parties were used legally. In response, GE had tightened its sales process in 2004, and had even suffered a dip in sales as a result. Meanwhile, a significant fraction of illegitimate practitioners continued to manage access to ultrasound machines by other means and GE remained a regular target of NGO protests and court cases.